Foreign Military Veteran

This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.

Five years ago, I had the night of my life with Harris Sutton. Out of all the people in the bar, the famous hockey player chose me. He was in town for a game and when he left, he took my virginity with him. And he unknowingly left me with a souvenir. Five years later, my souvenir is my whole world. A five-year-old boy that I never told him about. Lucas. We’re happy and comfortable in our little life. I’ve moved on and settled into the grind of single motherhood.

Justice does not always come easily, and it comes in many guises. On the seedier side of London, a shopkeeper witnesses a brutal beating in “The Veteran” (read by Patrick Macnee). In a better neighborhood, a famous London auction house is scammed in “The Art of the Matter” (also read by Macnee).

Twenty years of America’s Global War on Terror produced little tangible success while exacting enormous harm. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States sustained tens of thousands of casualties, expended trillions of dollars, and inflicted massive suffering on the very populations that we sought to “liberate.” Now the inclination to forget it all and move on is palpable. But there is much to be learned from the immense debacle. And those who served and fought in these wars are best positioned to teach us.

From a veteran insider with over 20 years’ experience in the US Foreign Service comes a taut, insightful thriller of global intrigue and behind-the-scenes international politics. Sam Trainor’s career of overseas work coupled with a penchant for being outspoken has left him on the outside of the competitive Washington establishment. Formerly the top South Asia expert in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Trainor has moved to the private sector, working as an analyst for the consulting firm Argus Systems.

"The Veteran" features Henry Fleming as a grandfather, many years after he appeared as the 18-year-old Yankee first-time soldier in The Red Badge of Courage. He retells the story succinctly and honestly about how he ran from his first battle as so many did. His grandchild is alarmed, as children are when they learn that adults are not perfect in what they do.

This is a story from the Classic American Short Stories collection.